Whether she’s climbing Mount Kilimanjaro or producing documentaries, Wilhelmina Fredericks, S BA 78, helps African children stricken by HIV/AIDS.

Rhonda Mullins

Wilhelmina Fredericks, S BA 78, remembers how she would talk to Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania whenever she passed by on expeditions as a young woman in her native Africa. “I’ll climb you one day,” Fredericks would say. In 2002, Fredericks attended a funeral in her birthplace, South Africa’s Western Cape province.

There were coffins for 20 people—12 of whom were children—who had died of AIDS. “I knew I had found my reason and purpose to climb Mount Kilimanjaro: for the 20 million African children infected and affected by HIV/ AIDS,” she says.

When Fredericks returned to Montreal, her home of more than 40 years, she set out to organize “Kilimanjaro 20/20,” an annual climb of the Tanzanian mountain, to raise $20 million for medicine and supplies for African children living with HIV/AIDS.

In 2004, at age 64, Fredericks scaled Mount Kilimanjaro for the first time. She was joined by 12 other Canadians. “It was spiritually fulfilling, emotionally draining and physically exhausting,” she says. Fredericks has led climbing expeditions to Mount Kilimanjaro each year since, raising more than $800,000. This year’s climb is planned for September 7 to 21.

The first ascent taught Fredericks much about herself and her fellow climbers, as well as the guides and porters who worked for them. “They had dreams and aspirations that were no different from any Canadian,” she points out. “Dreams of getting a good education and finding a good job.”

Fredericks had similar dreams when she was a young factory worker in South Africa. Her favourite pastime was travelling on jungle and mountain expeditions to neighbouring countries. On one expedition in Kenya, she met a sociology professor from Saskatchewan, Edwin Fowlers, who had contracted malaria. Fredericks left the expedition to nurse Fowlers back to health. “I learned all about Canada in his tent,” she recounts.

The appreciative professor offered to sponsor Fredericks’s high school education in Canada. Four years later, Fredericks arrived in Montreal en route to Saskatchewan. She quickly fell in love with the city and decided to make it her home. She would later study Library Science and Sociology—and learn English—at Concordia.

“The dual French and English culture of Montreal is so much like the culture of South Africa: Afrikaans and English,” Fredericks says. She boasts 15 different ethnic groups in her background. “Pick whatever you like. But I like to be known as a Métis of South Africa.”

In 1988, Fredericks founded Zerf Productions, a non-profit organization that produces African-themed documentaries and live performances to raise awareness and money for humanitarian causes. This June, Zerf Productions showcased Mrembo Dance, an African fashion show and musical extravaganza featuring child singers from Tanzania. The Montreal show raised funds to drill a well for an orphanage near Mount Kilimanjaro.

Fredericks says she has strengthened her ties with the mothers and children of Africa because of the promise she made to the late Professor Fowlers. “He said I must return to Africa and share my education with my people. My work in Africa is a way of honouring my Canadian mentor,” she says. “It is because of him that I am a graduate of Concordia. I believe it’s a dream come true.”

—Nachammai Raman

For more information on Zerf Production and Kilimanjaro 20/20, visit zerfchallenge2020.com